Hunting and Gathering

There are just a few more resources I need before leaving to conquer other worlds. The farm is ready, seeds planted and cared for. Now, I need to find some immediate food source and material for weapons and armor if I am to succeed on this quest.

Hunting and Gathering:

Survival in the old days depended heavily on the concept of hunting and gathering. So much so that successful tribes knew to follow the animals, moving place to place to have a constant food source. So, how can we apply this concept to working online? Well, let’s look back to the previous post, creating our farm. By now, your farm should be up and running. Some of us may have a few hundred followers and connections, others more and some less. Where ever you are, as long as your farm is up and running and active, you are in a good place.

So, where does hunting come in? Well, your farm is a food source. What’s attracted to a food source? Animals that eat the food you are growing of course! So, you hunt them. Set your traps, gather your weapons and set out!

Hunting:

Analytics are a thing I am still learning. Back in my HubPages days I was pretty good at working on SEOs and managing my Google Analytics. These days, they have been on the back burner, which isn’t great really. While I believe these things are slowly dying out as technology advances and we move forward as a technical society, they are still very relevant for the time being. My advice here…don’t follow my lead! Research SEO Optimization and how to use Google Analytics. These are TRACKING TOOLS that will make your HUNTING easier!

For those little rebels out there like myself, check out these ideas, apply them, see how they work and what you can do different or if you even need to do anything different to begin with.

The Blog:

First and foremost, your blog is your primary farm. Your blog should be the main source of food where the most animals are attracted. This is where you REALLY want to lay your traps down to catch the little critters.

Traps:

Traps are, obviously, your subscription opt-in forms! As I have been following the online course in list building, subscribers = money. Opt-in forms = subscribers. But of course, you can’t just say “Hey sign up for this!” And expect people to take it. You have to give them a reason to want to sign up! In comes the bait for the traps.

Bait:

Your bait is your reason people want to sign up. I.e. If you signed up for my blog earlier, you were offered a free ebook of sorts going over some of the top 10 lies affiliate markets will tell you. I admit, this one is some what silly to be honest. But to me it’s quite important to get this out to the masses! I have befriended quite a few affiliate marketers and I watch the tricks they use to lure unsuspecting victims in and convince them to buy a product or MLM service.

Multi-Level Marketing is, in my whole-hearted opinion, the worst thing ever. Of course, there are your success stories. But those are few and far in between. Those are the ones good at convincing others to buy in to a program that they really don’t understand. These programs are usually disguised as an educational program in which you learn how to market and make money. The thing is, you don’t really learn anything other than how to sell that very high ticket program to others, make money off them purchasing it, then make money off the people they sell it to and so on. Everyone, in a sense, SHARES money. It’s super close to the idealistic “good” parts of communism!

Sorry, I just needed to get that point across! The point is, give people a REASON to sign up. In the next coming days I will be launching an e-course on starting your first forge and blacksmithing as a hobby! I am currently in the process of putting a forge together, so stay tuned there!

Traps in other places:

Of course, you can place your traps in other places as well. After all, your farm is rather large. Use your articles to start. Re-purpose blog posts to fit in to social media. Use bits and pieces from your posts, add a picture and link to that post. It takes maybe 5 to 10 minutes MAX to do this! It’s a simple and effective way to get people reading your posts, which in turn brings them to….YOUR OPT-IN FORMS! Traps set, just keep an eye on them and keep fresh bait for the best ones. 😉

Pack Your Bow and Arrows:

Of course, the successful hunter knows not to rely JUST on traps. While they are great, there are other aspects to hunting as well. You must go out looking for your food. You want that huge, beefy deer with years worth of meat on it! But, that deer is huge for a reason. It’s smart. It knows what to watch for and avoid. It survives because it has learned what not to do.

Hunting can be difficult and time consuming. Let’s apply this concept with an example on Instagram:

Instagram Hunting:

This is something I am still in the process of and trying to master. I am not quite the successful hunter, but it’s getting better with practice! So, to have a successful following on Instagram, you have to be active. This doesn’t mean JUST posting pictures of that delicious Starbucks food you order on a Tuesday afternoon before going home from work. No, you must communicate with those who follow you, those who don’t follow you, and the followers of the ones who follow you. Speaking of, your followers are a great source.

Taking your followers own followers:

This is an awesome and easy way to build your list. Go to some of your top followers, those with over 1000 followers of their own. Look through their list and see what kind of people are following them. Go through their profiles, like some of the pictures and comment too! Commenting is great for building relationships and getting your own following up. It really is THAT simple. But it’s not THAT easy.

What does that mean? Well, that really is all you have to do. BUT it becomes very time consuming, very quickly. It can overload your brain, drain your mental energy and tire you out. Don’t believe me? Try this:

Spend 1 hour dedicated to absolutely NOTHING BUT Instagram. During this time, don’t JUST scroll through liking pictures. Be particular. Find people that fit in to your niche, look through their profile, like a few pictures of theirs and write a special comment for them. From there, look at their followers, rinse and repeat. Do this exact thing for an hour straight and see how tiresome it can become!

By the way, this method also falls in to Gathering.

Gathering:

Don’t just farm, trap, and hunt your prey. Gather some fruit too! Let’s try it this way. See your fruit as potential business partners, people you can learn from and profit from at the same time. Networking is very important, and so much more than JUST being social. Some of the people you come across you will find you want a deeper relationship with than JUST a following. This is no offense to your followers. These people just happen to have something they could offer you, with you helping them in some way in return. You have to be quite selective in this, as you want people that will challenge you and help you grow, rather than those that let you be complacent and toxic to your growth.

Look at your friends. You are the some of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Really look at this. Are they helping you to succeed and reach your goals, or are they holding you back and preventing you from success? It can be hard, but it can be very uplifting when you eliminate the rotten apples. I went through a time where I shut down Facebook for 2 years and did not socialize with anyone but a select few friends. Getting away from it for that time was enlightening in that it showed me how much time I was wasting trying to have relationships with friends that really DIDN’T care. It sucks, but once you invest all that time in to the RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS it is so much better, I promise.

A Closing For My Friends:

If you are following me here, or anywhere, I consider you a friend. If you need help with anything, I will do my best to help you solve whatever the issue is! If you want to build a Master Mind Group, get with me! I’m still seeking the right people for this group! We are all here to grow and succeed and I want you guys to grow and succeed as much as I want to.

So, practice the above, build your networks and relationships, grab those followers and stay tuned for the next chapter in the series!

Share this:

Related

Author: Mr. Viking

Mr. Viking is a creative mind with experience in many fields, including writing, blogging, music, painting, drawing and entertaining the masses. He is a creative, loving husband with a goal to explore and conquer the world. He has ventured online once again to set sail and conquer his plans, captivate his audience and better the world one post at a time.
View all posts by Mr. Viking